Red Blood
by Felinephoenix
Summary: Once again, there's a new can of Monster Blood. But there's something REALLY wrong with this can. Chapter 5 up! Conan ponders, but then soon...well...read to find out! PG for later chapters.
1. Chapter One - Baby-sitting

Author's Note: Well, I've always liked the Monster Blood books since I was a kid. And over the summer I dug up my old books...and decided I really wanted to write a fic.  
  
This takes place sometime between Monster Blood 3 and 4, which I haven't gotten to read yet. ;_;  
  
Disclamier: I don't own Goosebumps. If I did, I would be a millionaire and therefore probably not writing fics...I'm poor, so no sue. Seriously. I HAVE NOTHING OF MONETARY VALUE!  
  
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Evan Ross' eyes opened wide. He was breathing very rapidly, and was soaked in his own sweat. He had been dreaming about it again -- the Monster Blood. Monster Blood was kind of like Jell-O, as far as looks went. It was green, slimy, and all-around icky. It even tasted okay. Kind of lemony, as Evan had found out.  
  
But that's where the similarities ended.   
  
Monster Blood was alive. It was, to put it bluntly, evil. It had been created by an evil witch named Sarabeth -- sort of. She had been the one who commanded his old Aunt Kathryn to cast the spell on the can of goo he and his best friend Andy had bought.   
  
Evan shuddered as he thought about that slimy green gunk and things it had done. It would make anyone or anything that ate keep growing and growing. It had made his dog Trigger about the size of a small monster. Cuddles the Hamster had grown to about ten feet tall and practically destroyed Evan's school. And Evan himself...became a giant about three stories high.  
  
So, it was pretty understandable that night after night, Evan would have nightmares about that icky goo. Almost every single night. He even had daynightmares about the stuff! In fact, he could barely stand anything green anymore. At least his mother had finally started remembering NOT to buy the green Jell-O-O.  
  
Evan glanced at his clock. Might as well get ready for school.  
  
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"So, do you want to come with me?" Evan asked.  
Andy sighed and shook her head.   
"Can't." she said sympathetically.  
Evan shook his shoulders. "Oh, well, off to get poisoned or shrunk...or whatever."  
Andy put a hand on his shoulder. "Hang in there, buddy."   
Evan nodded glumly.   
Andy removed her hand and turned to face Evan. "Well, I have to go. See you at school tomorrow."  
"Yeah. See ya." said Evan, waving as Andy walked away. He sighed and turned in the opposite direction toward Kermit's house.  
  
Kermit was Evan's mad-scientist cousin. He liked to spend his days hanging out in the basement with his chemistry set instead of going outside like a normal kid. And boy was Kermit a brat! He loved to get Evan into trouble any way possible. He had to do everything Kermit said or he'd tell his Mom that Evan was being mean to him.  
  
Fortunately Kermit wasn't quite so bad since the latest Monster Blood fiasco. The one where Evan had grown into a huge giant. Of course, if it wasn't for Kermit he would still be one.  
  
Brat though he was, Kermit was a genius. He had invented a shrinking formula a bit before Evan turned skyscraper-size. After some mishaps with the mixing, Kermit got the formula right and Evan managed to shrink down to his normal size.   
  
Which was the only reason that Evan was still baby-sitting the little creep. Usually, Evan would bring Andy with him since Kermit was a little bit better when she was around. On occasion. You never really could tell, except when Kermit got this little smile he always got whenever he got Evan and Andy into trouble. It was a very creepy smile.  
  
Evan pulled his head out of the clouds and opened the door to his Aunt Dee's house. Then he screamed.  
  
Kermit was unconscious, and lying a pool of blood.  



	2. Chapter Two - The Plot Develops

"Kermit!" Evan cried, running over to his psychotic cousin.  
Then, to Evan's surprise, Kermit got up and started laughing. "Gotcha, Evan!" Kermit shouted.  
"B-but...but what about the blood?" Evan stammered. This just didn't add up...  
Kermit started laughing again. "You are soooo stupid, Evan. The blood was fake."  
Evan roared, lept foward to strangle Kermit, but missed by a few feet. Kermit was holding his sides, laughing like a maniac. It just made Evan even madder. That little _creep!_ He made Evan think he was dead!  
At the moment, Evan wished Kermit _was_ dead. "Kermit, don't you ever do something like that again!"

Kermit was still chuckling to himself, reminding Evan of a demented, chuckling mouse with glasses.  
"Sure thing, Evan. You'd better clean up that blood though, or Mom is going to throw a fit." Kermit said.  
Evan groaned. This was one of those days that he really hated Kermit, even if he helped helped him out of a fix every now and then. Grumbling to himself, Evan went to pick up the gooey fake blood. At least it wasn't Monster Blood, Evan thought.

"Geez, this stuff really sticks!" Evan muttered to himself as he tried to pick the red goo up off Aunt Dee's carpet, with no luck. Evan groaned, and tugged at the sticky goo with all his might. The stupid stuff was really grossing him out and he wanted to get rid of it as soon as possible. Then Evan heard a sickening slurping sound and realized to his horror the stuff was trying to suck him in!  
"Kermit!" Evan called out to his cousin for help. "_Kermit!_ It's Monster Blood, help!" Evan yelled in panic as he managed to extract his arms with a superhuman effort.

Then Evan saw Kermit standing in front of him, holding a familiar blue and yellow can. The words Monster Blood were on the front. But that wasn't what scared Evan, it was the way Kermit was glaring at him with yellow cat-like eyes that weren't his own. Eyes that Evan remembered from somewhere...  
Evan's thoughts were disrupted as Kermit slammed him into the table, knocking Evan out. 


	3. Chapter Three - Something is Really Wron...

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Look, Conan's here! Okay, Conan will be in this story a lot. All right, this is where the story starts getting scary, if I pull it off right. Enjoy!

Andy paced around nervously. Where _was_ Evan? He should've been back from Kermit's by now...but he wasn't.  
That wasn't like Evan. He would leave Kermit's the second his Aunt Dee got home, and his baby-sitting job had ended about an hour ago! Something was really wrong here, and Andy didn't like it.  
Maybe Kermit had wrecked the house again and Evan was still cleaning it up. Or maybe he and Kermit were chasing Kermit's retarded dog, Dogface. Maybe. It was pretty likely, after all. Oh, Evan was _so_ going to get it for making her worry like his, Andy promised to herself. But still, she couldn't stop thinking something else was really wrong here...

To Andy's surprise, she suddenly saw someone very big running to her. Conan the Barbarian. He was your typical school bully everyone hated, and he was super strong because he worked out all the time. He was actually pretty cute, but he was such a jerk to everyone that most girls didn't give him a second thought. Especially not Andy, since he never gave her and Evan a break, ever. In a few moments, Conan was standing next to her with this panicked look in his eyes.  
"You've got to get to Kermit's house!" Conan told her, grabbing her by the wrist and pulling her with him. Andy just gaped at him. What the heck had happened to make Conan like this? Okay, now Andy was sure something was weird here.  
"Conan, what's going on?" Andy asked as Conan dragged her over to Kermit's house. Andy gasped as she saw the ambulance heading to Kermit's. Oh, no. No way...  
Andy's worst fears were confirmed as two men came out of the house with a stretcher. She could see Evan's head poking out, and there were ugly bruises forming on his freckled face. Andy just stood rooted to the spot in shock, not noticing that Conan had finally released his painful grip on her wrist. She watched, feeling sicker by the minute, as the men placed Evan in the ambulance.

Andy saw Kermit and his family off to the side, his Mom in tears. But Kermit's face was oddly...blank. It was beyond being in his own little world, it was as if Kermit's wasn't there...and then Andy caught a glint of yellow in his eyes. A disturbingly familiar color that should've belonged to a cat....

Oh. God. Andy gasped as she saw the Monster Blood can in Kermit's hand, and she _knew._ She couldn't possibly think of a joke to lighten the situation on this. Those eyes _did_ belong to a cat, or more precisely a witch with the body of a cat. A witch named Sarabeth. Sarabeth was controlling Kermit, and she'd made him attack Evan.

Then Andy began to run. She knew that she would be next. 

Review, please! Or I'll set Kermit on you! 


	4. Chapter Four - Sweet Nightmares

"Andy, where are you going? Andy!"  
Andy did hear Conan as she ran, but she didn't pay any attention to his question. All she was thinking of was those yellow, cat-like eyes on Kermit's face. She started to run like she'd never run before. Her senses were on hyper alert. She was completely aware of the fast pounding in her heart, aware of her feet hitting the cement every other second, and very aware of the way she was sucking in air as if she couldn't breathe at all.  
"ANDY!" She heard Conan yell in frustration and she heard him running after her. But she didn't care. As long as it wasn't Kermit behind her. As long as it wasn't those eyes...  
Then Andy's foot caught on a nasty crack in the sidewalk, and she lost her balance. She went toppling down, briefly seeing the rough gray cement before everything went black.

There were dark storm clouds above her head. Everything was stained a shade of sickening green. Andy was walking through the disgusting green nightmare, looking for something or someone. Then she heard two familiar voices calling out for her. Evan and Kemit.  
Then she saw them. They looked like ghosts, and the sight made Andy almost burst into tears.  
Evan was the one who spoke. "Andy, Andy listen to me. You've got to find a way to destroy the Monster Blood."  
"Destroy it? But how can I do that, Evan? I'm just a kid!" Andy screamed at the ghostly version of her best friend.  
The ghostly Evan looked troubled. "I...I don't know..." he whispered. Then Kermit spoke up.  
"You've got to find a way! Before Sarabeth does something horrible...before she..." Kermit's words were cut off. Behind the three of them suddenly appeared a pair of malicious feline eyes.  
"NO!" screamed Andy, watching in horror as the ghostly Kermit and Evan disappeared. "KERMIT! EVAN!"  
Andy woke up with a jerk, and snatched her sheets to stop from falling over. She was covered in cold sweat, panting and scared. It was just a dream...just a dream...

Dream or no dream, it made her sick to her stomach. Just this afternoon, she'd been telling Evan she couldn't go with him to baby-sit Kermit. And now, Evan was in a hospital somewhere because a possessed Kermit had done something to him.  
Evan and Kermit were really the only friends she had. So some of the kids at school were copying her really style, but none of them had ever been really nice to her. They picked on her almost as badly as they did with Evan, even if the two of them had saved their school from becoming a tasty snack for a monster hamster.  
Kermit was a big brat most of the time, but he was kind of fun. How often do you get to hang out with a kid genius, after all? After the most recent episode with the Monster Blood, Kermit had gotten to be a lot nicer...at least towards Andy. He still liked to play jokes on Evan, but he would help Andy with her homework and she was starting to teach him how to have a little fun...

Then there was Evan. She and Evan were the kind of friends that were always joined at the hip, sort of. They had the whole "us-versus-the-world" thing going for them. Andy had friends before Evan, of course, but she was never very close with any of them. The boys only liked her because she was one of them. The girls only teased her and all of that junk. But with Evan it had been different. He'd liked her because of the way she was. She'd even started to wonder about what it'd be like if anything more than friendly happened between them...

"Andrea! Oh, you're finally awake!" Andy heard her aunt call. She was staying with her aunt and uncle for a year while her parents were overseas. Andy adored them, really, way more than her workaholic dad and snobby mom. Except for one thing. They insisted on calling her by her full name, Andrea. And Andy _hated_ that name with a passion.  
Andy looked around, finally realizing she was back at her house again. But hadn't she been running away from Kermit...?  
"What happened?" Andy asked dumbly. Her aunt didn't answer, she just held Andy close to her as she was sobbing and muttering about how worried she'd been.  
"You had a concussion, miss." Andy looked up to see a tall, young doctor next to her. With his black hair and bright blue eyes, Andy also had to admit he wasn't bad looking at all. "This boy here called for us." The doctor said, jerking his thumb at Conan. Andy hadn't even noticed he was in the room. Conan looked embarrassed.

Andy was shocked -- first Kermit got possessed, Evan got beat up, she had one really strange dream and _Conan_ was looking out for her? This day could not get any weirder. Or so Andy thought until something outside the window caught her gaze.  
Staring straight into Andy's eyes with yellow catlike ones that were not even his, was Kermit. Then he muttered something, and Andy saw an enormous blob of red Monster Blood come hurtling towards the house. 


	5. Chapter Five - Barbarian?

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Okay, I got my creative juices flowing again! With my other series getting started I kind of, um, forgot this one. That seems to happen a lot...but anyway, I've finally got a setup for this fic. Two chapters from Evan's view, two from Andy's and so on. This time I'll be focusing on Conan.

I'm now responding to my reviews, so those will be at the end of the fic, thanks!

**Red Blood, Chapter Five: Barbarian?**

Conan had always known that Evan and Andy were weird, to say the least. There was Evan, who was your token weird new kid. The kind Conan really liked picking on for about a month or two. Then he would usually leave them alone. But something about Evan Ross really irritated Conan. Maybe it was his red hair...he'd never been a fan of red hair. Mostly it was the Monster Blood stories...he hated hearing about that nasty green junk. Conan knew it just had to be some stupid scary story the new kid had made up, it was just that...well...  
Conan the Barbarian did not like scary things. Like Cuddles, for example. When Mr. Murphy's stupid fat hamster had grown bigger than the school, Conan was pretty scared. Then Cuddles tried to eat him. Conan still had nightmares about that. So it made sense that Conan did not appreciate Evan telling everybody in school about the weird sticky, gooey, green Monster Blood that had tried to kill him and his friend Andy.  
Who Conan thought was a boy, until he met the real Andy.

Though there was _no way_ whatsoever that he would admit it, Conan actually had respect for Andy.  
Secretly, he thought it was pretty cool that she didn't let others boss her around. It was cool that she stuck with Evan even when it was pretty obvious the world's biggest weirdo. It was cool that she stood up to him, really.  
Conan also had to admit Andy was almost...kind of...cute when she got mad. Not like he liked her or anything.  
No way. Don't even suggest it. Conan probably wouldn't have teased Andy and all of that other stuff he did, except that she was friends with Evan. And according to the whole school, once you were friends with someone Conan didn't like, he was your enemy. So Conan didn't really have any choice in the matter. Sometimes he hated that.

At the moment, what he hated was the way everything around him had started getting really weird. First Evan ended up in the hospital because his annoying little pipsqueak of a cousin had beaten him up. There was something really wrong with that, Conan was sure. Evan might be a wimp, but even he could beat Kermit up.  
Then there was the way Andy was reacting to everything. Freaking out and running away like someone was after her. Maybe Kermit, Conan thought to himself. What the heck was up with Kermit, anyway? It was odd...something was really off with Kermit. He didn't get mad and stuff like he usually did when Conan bothered him. (Only because of that whole Evan thing)  
What was worse, he was pretty sure that Evan hadn't been lying about the Monster Blood crap now.  
Except Conan was quite sure the stuff he was getting sucked into was defintely not green.  
It was a deep, sickening red. It take long for Conan to be completely inside the stuff...he couldn't breathe...

But then, suddenly, he could. Something was weird...Andy started screaming. It hurt Conan's ears.  
The envolping, sick, dark red had gone away pretty quickly. Conan was glad of that.  
Then he heard a weird sound. It was something like a person talking, but there was something distinctly...catlike...about the very feminine voice. And what it had to say was not something Conan liked at all.

_"Hello, 'Conan the Barbarian'. My name is Sarabeth and I am now your master. For your first task..."_

Conan's body, to his horror, began moving on it's own. And he started choking Andy.

To The Fans (yeah, right)  
**BadMoonlight** - You really like this? Thanks! Good to know I'm not the only person who digs up old stuff. And there'll be more Conan...I can't say more about his being possessed, though. I'd love to read your Goosebumps story if you ever get around to writing it!  
**Ihateyou** - Creative name, really. Very mature. Your little flame did up my reviews, so thanks for that. If you do write any stories, I would like to see them. Email them to me. But I have to say...if my writing did suck so badly that it would "kill" you, could you perhaps give me some pointers on how to better my work next time? And for future reference -- one, if you are really so upset about a fanfic that it could kill you, I suggest immediate help. Two, try reading all of a story and think of things you don't like about it before you flame, and address that instead. You'll come off as much more mature.  
**the truth** - Well, I think you've kind of got to read most of the Monster Blood series before you understand this fic... 


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